Lac des Iles Mine team rises to Covid challenge

By Kevin Vincent

“As a team and as a greater community, we are always stronger together. The team at LDI and the people of Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario are resilient, and collectively we have risen to the challenges associated with COVID-19,” said Tim Hill, Chief Executive Officer, Impala Canada at the time of the outbreak.

The company has since made substantial contributions to a number of community groups as part of its CSR engagement plan.

The unsettling death of one of their employees stole the headlines from an otherwise exciting takeover for Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., also known as the Implats Group, the parent company of Impala Canada.

Implats is one of the world’s foremost producers of PGMs. The low-cost Lac des Iles Mine immediately boosted Implats’ value and strengthens cash flow to advance what it calls its journey toward delivering sustainable shareholder returns. It also diversified the group’s production base with a palladium-rich operation in an established, low-risk mining jurisdiction.

“Impala Canada will accelerate our progress against a number of key strategic imperatives,” stated Nico Muller, CEO and Executive Director of Implats. “The acquisition is an important development in the evolution of the Implats Group into a sustainable PGM producer. Over the past three years we have developed a strong understanding of the Canadian operation and its management team and are encouraged by its focus on palladium, its reliable growth potential, its highly engaged team and the revenuegenerating potential of the Lac des Iles Mine. This acquisition is a positive development for Implats and our stakeholders.”

The former Chief Financial Officer of NAP, Tim Hill, was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Impala Canada. The NAP corporate office in Toronto became the regional office for Implats, while NAP’s finance and exploration offices remain in Thunder Bay.

“We are proud to play a significant role within a larger, integrated global PGM producer. We are confident that Lac des Iles will continue to be one of Canada’s largest, lowest-cost and safest underground mines, producing a metal that contributes to a cleaner global environment. We look forward to benefiting from the technical, operational and financial resources of a global company as we continue to pursue our palladium production, development and exploration objectives in Canada,” said Hill.

The remote mine is 90 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay and employs 800 people, many on a two-week rotational basis.

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